Before and After the Book Deal

A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book

By: Courtney Maum

Narrated by: Courtney Maum

Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Everything you've ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask is right here in this funny, candid guide by acclaimed author Courtney Maum. Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including internationally best-selling authors Anthony Doerr, Roxane Gay, Garth Greenwell, Lisa Ko, R. O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, and Ottessa Moshfegh, alongside cult favorites Sarah Gerard, Melissa Febos, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Mira Jacob. Agents, film scouts, film producers, translators, disability and minority activists, and power agents and editors also weigh in, offering advice and sharing intimate anecdotes about even the most taboo topics in the industry.  

Are MFA programs worth the time and money? How do people actually sit down and finish a novel? Did you get a good advance? What do you do when you feel envious of other writers? And why the heck aren't your friends saying anything about your book? Covering questions ranging from the logistical to the existential (and everything in between), Before and After the Book Deal is the definitive guide for anyone who has ever wanted to know what it's really like to be an author.

©2020 Courtney Maum (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

A gem for early-stage writers

Courtney Maum's latest, "Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book" is a gem of a guidebook for early stage authors who are preparing to publish. It is well-written, informative and to the point. Ms Maum is warm-hearted, generous with her advice and genuine in her desire to help fellow writers. Her reading carries the book well and her voice naturally draws you in. Moreover, she delivers her knowledge with delicate humor, and strikes a welcome balance between realism and inspiration. The book is well-researched and draws on the experiences of many an editor, publisher, agent and author, all individuals whom she interviewed for this opus. Well done, Courtney Maum, and thank you!

must-read for first timers

this title had useful information on the whole process of getting through writing a book. the author does a good job breaking down when you'll need a publisher, editor and agent, if you read them at all.

She gets political at times, with a lot of virtue signalling , but I was able to put up with it for the information.

No focus

Everything but what a fiction author needs to know about the publishing world. So many derailing topics that have nothing to do with the title. We’re talking ramblings about poetry and magazine contests that go on forever. This is a bait and switch.

The Book Deal

I was afraid of this book. More specifically, I was afraid of producing a substandard work of fiction and, then, not needing this excellent work of nonfiction which navigates the publishing world so deftly. Thank God Courtney Maum saw fit to set down on paper her prescient observations regarding how to maintain sanity ‘before and after the book deal.’ For in truth, that is the true subject of her nonfiction—How not to go ‘batshit crazy’ while attempting to publish one’s first book. Many thanks, Courtney Maum.

Informative!

I liked the book. The thing that kept taking me out of the book was when the author would refer to Trump a couple times. A pointless person reference for an irrelevant point to taxes. As an enrolled agent and CPA myself, I would advise that you overlook the tax portion entirely. seek that information else where. other than that... amazing book. thank you for sharing the accumulated information you have for writing and the industry.

Useful, real information for writers.

This book is real about writing for profit. It also has enough encouragement to make the most cowardly writer feel positive. New writers get questions answered. I feel that anyone writing would benefit from this book.

Not for you if you're a white male.

This writer hates white males and takes shots at them every chance she gets. The diminishes or outright dismisses their basic humanity and life experience and fundamentally invalid and without value. A work of hate.

Best investment Ever

A gem. Practical, insightful, illuminates the business of writing that both makes me feel better for not ‘making it’ right away and fortifies me to keep trying.

Love it!

Maum gives all the right advice with the perfect sense of humor. This makes the bad news more palatable and the good news a celebration.

Read this newbie writers!

This book was thought provoking and thorough. A great reference for any want to be writers!